The Puffer Forum

OK. After checking out some fish stores yesterday, my wife and I decided there is definitely a porcupine puffer in our future. Those are some cool little fish. Guess they don't stay that little for long...

Anyway, first question I have. I stumbled across a site saltwaterfish.com that sells porcupine puffers and many other cool fish. In their description of porcupine puffers is the following sentence "The Porcupine Puffer is very active and likes lots of other fish to swim around with." That goes against everything I've heard about puffers... I thought anything smaller could be lunch. So what's right? And also, depending on which site I hit, they recommend 75 gallons+ for one of these guys because they get up to eight inches, or 100 gallons+ because they get up to 20 inches. You put two 20 inch fish in a tank, and you will need a HUGE tank!! I'd love to hear from anyone who owns one of these guys what your experience is. Also what is the life span on these? I've read 10+ years up to 20 years.

Also wondering - the cost of a 100 or more gallon tank is pretty expensive. Now, I'm not sure how fast a porcupine puffer grows, but most places that sell them sell in the 3 - 6 inch range. I can see housing one in a 55 gallon tank, then upgrading later and using the smaller tank for other fish (probably more puffers). I don't know if that would be too stressful on the fish though.

-Kenny

well I have kept alot of porc puffers and they do fairly well with other tank mates that are too big to be considered lunch. anything over 4 inches is usually left alone and anything over 6inches really is not touched unless you get a very terriorial one. as all puffers are different personality wise it is hard to say exactly.

as for growth they get to 6-8 inches in 2-5 years then slow down but they definatly hit 18+ inches and will need a 120 for their life. a 55 is fine til they hit 6-8 inches then start upgrading, though the bigger the tank to begin with the better.

as for other tricks like training them to eat only foods offered at the top or getting the puffers to "park" themselves on your hand and eat they are all easily done with patience. I have trained many to live in my invert tank as well as most other so called invert eaters to dine on frozen foods and leave the inverts in peace.

a beautiful fish but be prepared to do extra work.

I would be concerned that the waste produced by a puffer (even a small one) will be quite high in a small (55g) tank.

The large porky we have is 8" or so, we were told by the LFS that she had been owned by a guy for about 8 years. That was 18months ago and she is still going strong.

It is much more expensive to upgrade your tank and equipment later on down the road than it is to start with the tank that will be the fish's long-term home. Upgrading the skimmer, heater, lighting etc for the new tank will still cost a small fortune!

The skimmer cannot be overlooked, especially for a 55g. Unless you were planning on putting a massively oversized skimmer on the 55g that would then be transferred to the larger tank later on, then you have to buy two skimmers... In which case the difference in cost of a 55g and 100g+ tank is quite trivial by comparison.

My suggestion: price out both options. Either way it seems you have to pay for the larger tank and the equipment suitable to maintaining it. Starting with a 55g means you have to buy even more stuff... Long-term it will cost you more.

wow resurrecting old posts are we?

actually for my tanks it is VERY different than the average persons. so certain things are much higher rated than they are being used. my skimmer is for a 250, so very little chance that the porc in a 55 will push it.

for the filtration though if you have a porc period the filtration better be great. or the water changes many or it will languish and die. very few make it 18 years because of ppl getting too tired to do the work.

Jager wrote:very few make it 18 years because of ppl getting too tired to do the work.

I know it's true, but I think that's awful...would you buy a dog or cat and have it die in your home because you got 'tired' of it? I wish people treated all pets with the same respect.

heh well its not how i imagine anyone here keeping them, but there is a reason they are so many caught and sold. mostly because so many have either parasites or poor shipped or any other number of reasons they die.

Ive lost 8 out of the twenty Ive trained. several due to the LFS i got them from feeding diseased feeders to them. others for no real discernible reason autopsies came back negative.

lost two when the customer had them in two tanks next to each other. one jumped out and later (days)the other followed......

things happen, but being tired of maintenance is never a worthy excuse to kill a fish.

Its a good excuse to setup a system that self regulates

like mine

I wish there were fewer excuses for me to spend money lol...at least I have happy, healthy puffs!

Whoa, this is an old thread - sorry, I didn't even notice that.

eh its ok, besides its worth getting you clear you are going SW whether you like it or not.